In the past, I jokingly said that broccoli might someday be banned as soon as the public begins to learn about the potent anti-cancer chemicals found in the vegetable. Thatâs because, as I jested, the FDA wouldnât want people treating their own cancer with the anti-cancer medicines found in cruciferous vegetables. But it seems that my joke wasnât so funny after all, because the FDA is now threatening cherry growers with raids to confiscate their cherries, haul them into court, and put them out of business for doing one simple thing that the FDA cannot stand to allow: The distribution of scientific information describing the health benefits of cherries.

On October 17, 2005, the FDA sent warning letters to 29 companies that market cherries. In these letters, the FDA threatened these companies with legal action and told them they had to remove the scientific information on their websites that described the health benefits of the natural medicines found in cherries, such as the anthocyanins that reduce inflammation for arthritis sufferers. According to the warped FDA logic that now seems to be standard, when cherry growers post scientific information about the health benefits of their cherries, they magically transform their cherries into drugs and therefore, as drugs, they must have FDA approval in order to sell them in the United States.

The FDA says a cherry is a drug

Now, any normal, sane person would look at a cherry and say, âItâs just a cherry.â Itâs a natural fruit that people have been eating for as long as anyone can remember. But the FDA, in light of the fact that people are now discovering that cherries are actually good medicine, looks at a cherry and says (paraphrasing), âNo, itâs a drug, and you have to have our permission to market it, and if you continue to talk about the health benefits of cherries, we will use our power to put you out of business.â

Iâve often talked about the tyranny of the FDA and its campaign to censor the scientific truth about the healing benefits of natural foods, including cherries and many other items. This event demonstrates perfectly well the sinister nature of the FDA, which clearly intends to restrict the spread of knowledge about cherries and thereby protect the profits of anti-inflammatory drugs that treat joint pain. If Americans knew the true power of cherries to reduce inflammation, you see, the sales of anti-inflammatory drugs might plummet, and the criminal drug pushers who run organized medicine today can't allow that to happen. Hence, censorship and oppression of scientific information are the tactics used to keep the American people ignorant and, therefore, controlled.

Because it's not just cherries that contain powerful medicine, you see. It's blueberries, garlic, cabbage, onions, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, aloe vera, almonds and a thousand other natural foods and medicinal herbs. If the public understood the true healing power of these foods -- and the powerful medicines they contain -- conventional medicine and all its drug-pushing participants would suddenly be irrelevant and bankrupt.

That's what the drug pushers absolutely cannot allow to happen, and that's why the American people must be kept ignorant at all costs, even if it means engaging in book burning, armed raids on alternative medicine clinics, and jackbooted censorship of simple truths that might empower people to take charge of their own health. It is the most insidious use of power by any federal agency because its aim is ignorance, not education. It seeks to isolate people from information that might save them in order to control them, and it is the same tactic used by every evil regime in world history, including Nazi Germany. It also makes the FDA the single greatest threat to the health and safety of the American people, far outweighing the threat of terrorism in terms of the number of people harmed or killed. (See "Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists")

So Iâm just curious; are cherry growers who distribute scientific information now going to be arrested as cherry traffickers? Will people start smuggling cherries across borders so that their customers can benefit from the healing effects of these natural foods? Will the FDA raid cherry orchards with guns drawn like it did Dr. Jonathan Wrightâs clinic in Seattle many years ago? Will cherry growers be arrested and tried on crimes of making health claims or illegally marketing unapproved drugs?

These things were once thought of as being ridiculous. The very idea that a natural food could be outlawed was once considered a joke. Now it is one step closer to reality as this tyrannical organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is censoring scientific information on the health benefits of cherries and using its power to threaten cherry growers into silence.

More nonsense from the FDA

Amazingly, the FDA doesnât claim to disagree with the scientific information about cherries. Instead, it says that cherries âhave not been recognized as safe and effective when used as labeled.â And as the Life Extension Foundation explains, the FDAâs interpretation of the law means that cherry growers are âengaged in criminal conduct by relaying findings that have been published in peer reviewed scientific journals.â

So now publishing information makes you a criminal even if that information is scientifically sound and widely known to be absolutely true. If this isn't a blatant violation of the First Amendment, I don't know what is. Where's the Electronic Freedom Foundation on this issue? Isn't this a clear case where the tyranny of the FDA should be openly challenged by champions of Free Speech?

Cherries are now, according to the FDA, not recognized as safe and effective when used "as labeled." Iâm just curious, what does the label of cherries say about using it? Does it say, âEat me?â Because that's what we should all be saying to the FDA right now, as it is an agency immersed in such absolute nonsense that even fools can see the emperor has no clothes. To say a cherry is a drug and then threaten cherry growers with drug crimes is something ripped right out of the pages of 1984 and its Ministry of Truth. (See Wikipedia to learn more.)

In terms of genuine authority, the FDA is nothing short of an utter joke and an embarrassment to the American people. Unfortunately, it still has power, and it is exploiting that power to threaten cherry growers with criminal prosecution for doing what people have done for countless generations on this earth, which is to grow their own fruits and eat those fruits while enjoying their many benefits.

Do not tolerate unjust authority

Gandhi once initiated the Salt March to Dandi (the "Salt Satyagraha") in defiance of the tyrannical salt taxation rules of the occupying British government, and there he and his followers intentionally violated the law by harvesting salt from the waters. It was a practice that had been carried out for centuries by the people there, and one that provides essential minerals for human health. Gandhiâs defiance may teach us something very important about modern times, and that is that when a law is so unjust as to stand in violation of fundamental human rights, it is not only the right, but the duty of individuals to stand in firm opposition to that law and to challenge whatever authority unjustly imposes that law upon the people.

The FDA operates today much like the occupying British in 20th century India, oppressing the people, outlawing natural traditions like salt harvesting in order to control a monopoly market, silencing dissent, and threatening any organization or individual that challenges its power. The FDA, as it exists today, is an organization of tyranny and injustice that simply has no place in a free society.

Thatâs why I believe it is time for growers of cherries, fruits, vegetables and other healing foods to take a stand against the FDA. Stand firm against oppression and censorship, and stand up for your right to tell the truth about the healing benefits of your natural products. The FDAâs reclassification of cherry growers as criminals is a violation of every system of law and ethics that weâve known on this planet. It is a violation of natural law, it is a violation of Godâs law, and it is a violation of basic human rights, which include the right to grow and eat food and share that food with your neighbors along with information about what those foods can do to nourish them.

The FDA would like to imagine that it is the ultimate authority over all things health related and that only it can approve what words we might use to describe the fruits and vegetables we share with our neighbors. And as such, the FDA is an entity of ignorance and evil that actually seeks to de-educate the American people, and the day of outing the criminals who currently operate the FDA is long overdue. This is an agency whose decision makers need to be immediately arrested and tried for their crimes against humanity. It is an agency that demands wholesale reform from top to bottom and that must eliminate its obvious conflicts of interest and its desire to protect the pharmaceutical industry. It must be reformed with a new mission that it should have been following all along: To protect the health of the people it is supposed to serve.

End the tyranny of the FDA

If you're an American voter, one of the best ways to protect your health freedom, which is clearly under assault by the Food and Drug Administration as well as other disease-promoting interest groups, is to support the Health Freedom Protection Act (HR4282). It is a bill that will allow organizations like cherry growers to tell the truth about their products, as long as that truth is based on sound science. It would allow cherry growers, for example, to reference the published scientific studies that report on the healing benefits of the phytochemicals found in cherries.

It is a shame that in this country we even need such a bill, but we do need it, because the level of censorship, oppression, and tyranny now practiced by the FDA has reached its apex, and we must fight back with legislation that ends the tyranny of the Food and Drug Administration and reinforces our right to access information that can help us live happier, healthier and longer lives. Support the Health Freedom Protection Act (HR4282) by writing your representatives in Congress and voicing your opinion. Also visit the Life Extension Foundation, publishers of Life Extension Magazine, which contributed to this report.

Finally, refuse to live as a slave of conventional medicine and the FDA for another day. Demand health freedom and settle for nothing less than the ending of this age of medical tyranny that seeks to turn us all -- you, your parents, your children and preschoolers -- into ignorant, drug-induced consumers who will never know true freedom, nor true health. Perhaps the greatest legacy that we can pass on to our children is the ending of this medical McCarthyism and the unfolding of a new golden age of health freedom. Stay active and informed, and do not let ignorance and oppression prevail.

Action items

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About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose descendents include Africans and American Indians. He self-identifies as being of American Indian heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.